By Eric Thomas: WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO’s) is still a little resentful of the bad press he got after he was stopped in the 6th round by Marcos Maidana. A lot of boxing fans and writers saw Ortiz as a quitter because of the way that the fight ended.
Although Ortiz did come back and redeem himself in his last bout against Andre Berto last April, Ortiz still seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of the Maidana loss. However, that feeling of anger could actually give him the drive he needs to beat his next opponent Floyd Mayweather Jr. (41-0, 25 KO’s) next month in their fight at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Speaking with ringtv, Ortiz said “[Mayweather] don’t scare me at all. Not for a second. So as far as that goes, nothing’s changed and Mayweather’s going down.”
This could work in one of two ways for Ortiz. Either he is so energized because of the past that it hurts him by making him fight with anger instead of intelligence or it helps him by allowing him to walk through Mayweather’s pin point punches to get in close enough range to batter him. We’ll have to see on see on September 17th.
Ortiz is going to have to take a lot of hard shots, some of them he won’t be able to see coming because of the speed of Mayweather. Ortiz has to be able to take those shots in order to land his own. Mayweather really hasn’t been in a hard fight in many, many years. He’s been living the good life for a while now because of the millions he’s made in the ring. He hasn’t had to take a lot of punishment in fights against Oscar De La Hoya, Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez and Shane Mosley.
That’s the common theme in all those fights. He’s taken on slower guys who weren’t able to land a lot of their shots against him. Mosley briefly did in the 2nd round when he staggered Mayweather last year. However, Mosley ran out of gas immediately after that and never even really attempted to mount a sustained attack for the remainder of the fight.
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